Reading v/s Experiencing

The moment I realised that I am pregnant, I browsed through all book shops and purchased few books on "Pregnancy and Child Birth" as well as "Child care" and I also read almost every article that I came accross about this topic. Most of my free time was spent in acquiring knowledge about the matter because "pregnancy and childbirth" was something that was hyped by everybody around me. I was supposed to stay with my parents after 7 months into pregnancy, but I did not do that. I told my Mom to relax as I felt confident that I am equipped to handle everything very smoothly. Most of the time I did not involve my parents/in-laws or my husband during my visits to the gynaec or for sonography. Finally when I was in the 9th month, my brother pressurised me to shift to my parents home and so I came to my Mom's house. One day I was watching TV and suddenly I realised that I was in pain. My mother was sitting besides me and she observed the change in my expression. She enquired whether I am feeling uneasy and I replied that sometimes you get false signals but it does not mean that I have actually got labour pain.

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Thats what I had read in books. After few minutes, again I got the same pain and this time without considering my reluctance, my mother asked me to get ready to go to the hospital. She was very confident that what I had experienced was indeed labour pain and I was very confident that it was just a false signal. When we reached the hospital, the doctor examined me, and I was admitted. After 6 hours I delivered a healthy baby girl.

The birth of my daughter changed many things. I felt that I was ready with all knowledge required because I had read many books and articles, but what I experienced was much different from what I had read. Handling the new born baby was much more difficult than what I had ever imagined. When my mother tried to explain to me about the difficulties involved in handling the new born baby, I used to laugh at her. But experience changed everything. "Motherhood" taught me a valuable lesson that experience is the best teacher. My love and respect for my mother also increased after this incident.